Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. It is one of Avery's most popular cartoons, inspiring several of his own "sequel" shorts as well as influencing other cartoons and feature films for years afterward. Plot The story begins with the standard version of Little Red Riding Hood (with the wolf from Dumb-Hounded, the cartoon which saw the debut of Avery's Droopy) until the characters suddenly rebel at this done-to-death staging and demand a fresh approach. The annoyed narrator accedes to their demands and starts the story again in a dramatically different arrangement. Now the story is set in a contemporary urban setting, where Red is a sexy adult nightclub entertainer. The Wolf is a debonair skirt chaser who is in love with Red but she wants nothing to do with him. Red escapes the Wolf, saying she's going to her Grandma's house, but when the Wolf arrives Red is nowhere to be found. Grandma is an oversexed man-chaser who falls head over heels for the Wolf. Upon seeing him she whistles and says, "At last a wolf! Yahoo!" The Wolf tries to escape but Grandma blocks the exit and asks him, "What's your hurry hairy?" She locks the door, drops the key down the front of her evening gown, and poses provocatively for him. Soon after Grandma puts on a bright red shade of lipstick and tries to kiss the Wolf several times during his stay. He tries to escape but the lovelorn granny chases after him. Every door the Wolf opens Grandma is there waiting with puckered lips. He finally makes his escape by jumping out a window, severely injuring himself in the process. As this is a Tex Avery cartoon he immediately recovers, and makes his way back to the nightclub. There, the Wolf says, "I'm fed up with women. They're nothing but trouble. If I catch myself looking at another babe, I'll kill myself." Immediately after this, Red takes the stage and begins another performance. He pulls out two guns and commits suicide, but his ghost rises from his dead body and howls and whistles at her like he did earlier. Characters The character of Red Hot Riding Hood closely resembled one of the top pin-up girls at the time, Betty Grable. She is considered an amalgamation of the then popular Hollywood stars. Her singing voice in this particular short was reminiscent of Lena Horne's, while her speaking voice emulated that of Katharine Hepburn. Censorship The most famous element is the musical scene where Red performs and "Wolfie", as she calls him, reacts in highly lustful wild takes. Those reactions were considered so energetic that the censors at the time demanded cuts in this scene and others. The film's original conclusion had Grandma marrying the wolf at a shotgun wedding (with a caricature of Tex Avery as the Justice of the Peace who marries them), and having the unhappy couple and their half-human half-wolf children attend Red's show . This ending, deleted for reasons of implied bestiality and how it made light of marriage (something that was considered taboo back in the days of the Hays Office Code), was replaced with one (that, ironically, has also been edited, but only on television) where The Wolf is back at the nightclub and tells the audience that he's through with chasing women and if he ever sees a woman again, he's going to kill himself. When Red soon appears onstage to perform again, the Wolf takes out two pistols and blasts himself in the head. The Wolf then drops dead, but his soul appears and begins to howl and whistle at Red. Prints with the original ending (where the Wolf is forced to marry the lusty Grandma) and the Wolf's racier reactions to Red are rumored to have been shown to military audiences overseas during World War II, though it is not known if this print still exists. Follow-ups *Avery made several non-sequels to the film, including Swing Shift Cinderella (1945), The Shooting Of Dan McGoo and Wild And Woolfy (both 1945 and both featuring Droopy), Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947), and Little Rural Riding Hood (1949). Red also has a cameo appearance in The Hick Chick (1946). *Red made a comeback in the Saturday morning cartoon series Tom & Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective, appearing in the Droopy and Dripple and Calaboose Cal cartoon shorts. Red was given the name "Miss Vavoom" in Droopy and Dripple, and "Mystery Lady" in Calaboose Cal. As in the original MGM cartoons, Red plays the "damsel in distress" while the Wolf (here "McWolf") and Droopy compete for her affections. *Red was recently seen again in the Direct-to-video film Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes; the Wolf also makes a few appearances, first watching Red's cabaret performance and (at the end) as her groom. Homages *The gag where Grandma rushes to kiss Wolf, misses and leaves a giant lipstick imprint on the wall was also used in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon A Fine Feathered Frenzy when Gorgeous Gal tried to kiss Woody. She also shows up behind every door Woody opens ready to make out with him. Unlike Grandma, Gorgeous Gal does manage to kiss Woody several times during the film however. Gorgeous Gal marries Woody Woodpecker as well. *The scene where Grandma chases The Wolf was the inspiration for the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Lena Hyena chases Eddie Valiant. The wolf was also going to appear in the film (in one of the early drafts in the film's script the wolf was supposed to be seen in the Ink and Paint Club during Jessica's performance.) another draft of the script had him seen being kicked out with a bra on his face before Eddie went into the club, but these were dropped out later on. *The famous scene of The Wolf reacting lustfully in the club was directly referenced in The Mask where Stanley Ipkiss goes to the Coco Bongo club as the Mask. Seated at a similar table, he reacts to his first sight of Cameron Diaz's torch-singer character Tina Carlyle by mimicking many of the same cartoonish "wild takes" (achieved through the use of CGI), and his head even morphs into that of a cartoon wolf when he wolf-whistles and howls before bashing himself on the head with a mallet. There is also an early scene where The Mask's wimpy alter ego, Stanley Ipkiss (played by Jim Carrey) pops in a cartoon video, which shows this cartoon (on the part where the Wolf is lustfully reacting to Red singing "Daddy") and is yelled at by his landlady, Mrs. Peenman, after laughing at it. *Both Jessica Rabbit (of Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and Tina Carlyle (of The Mask) look and act like Red Hot Riding Hood from this cartoon, and they are both nightclub performers. External links * * * Hot Riding Hood'' at Keyframe - the Animation Resource * Tribute to Tex Avery's Red Category:Mgm cartoons Category:1940s Category:Wolf Category:Red Category:Fairly Tales